The Impostor, A Love Story (25 page)

“I wanted to kiss you that night,” he
admitted. “You were there in my arms, so beautiful, so sweet, so
delicious-looking. I should have kissed you that night.” He leaned
forward, savoring my lips. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

Coming back from Seattle, I felt a little
empty. Since Dylan and I had been dating, we had seen each other
almost every day. Now it was going to be a month before I saw him
again.

Chris had to leave early Monday morning.
Emily said she had a wonderful time in Seattle with Chris, but he
had to leave for another three weeks. She hated that he traveled
all the time—especially since he was so evasive about what it was
he did.

By Thursday morning, Emily and I were sitting
on our beds before work, cursing ourselves for caring so much. We
missed the guys terribly. We were interrupted by a call.

I turned to Emily, hanging up the phone. “The
car is ready. We can move into Steve’s house this weekend.”

“That is awesome.” Smiling, Emily jumped up
and gave me a high five. We would soon be free of our little
one-room kitchenette.

“He also told me the nanny is finally coming.
She will be here in two weeks.” I could finally fly back to
Maryland to get my Jessica.

“I guess we can call the airline today to see
when we can get the cheapest fare back. I can only stay for a
little over a week, but it will be so good to see everyone.”

“That is what I’m thinking. We can visit for
about a week-and-a-half. Since Dylan let me borrow money for the
ticket, I have enough so I can take off work for a bit when I get
back. I wanted to get Jessica situated and make her feel
comfortable with the nanny. I can’t believe I’m gonna see my angel!
I can’t wait.”

I popped upon the bed, crossing my legs. I
had given up the room I rented in the basement apartment in
Maryland, so I’d be crashing on my parents’ couch. I couldn’t wait
to see them. We were extremely close.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to get home, either. My
sister said my dad has been a little ill. It will be good to see
him.”

“Emily, you didn’t tell me that. Is he gonna
be okay?”

“He should be fine. I just want to see him.”
She quickly changed the subject, picking up the phone receiver.
Emily called United and scheduled our return flights. We bought
open round-trip tickets to come back to Alaska, so our return
ticket would be flexible again.

Quickly, our sadness from missing the guys
was replaced by the excitement of going home to see our
families.

I talked to Jess, and she was so excited
about me coming home to get her and bringing her back to Alaska
land.

With Chris out of town on business and
Dylan
on the Slope, Emily and I spent most
of our time working double shifts. Friday came and we were all
packed and ready to move into our new place . . . not that we had
much to pack up, just a few suitcases and the bags and boxes from
my shopping spree—oh, and of course, our endless stash of Cup of
Noodles.

Friday morning, Steve came to pick us up at
the hotel. This time I let him come directly to the hotel, since I
realized he would know where we lived soon enough.

“Your sons?” I commented. I expected them to
find them in the car with him.

“They are still at their grandparents’ house.
They will be coming up with the nanny in a few weeks. She will fly
to Oregon on her way back up here so they won’t have to fly alone.
My parents want to spend as much time as they can with their
grandsons before they come back.”

We pulled up to the house. The cathedral
ceiling and fireplace welcomed our arrival. It wasn’t as elaborate
as Chris’s place, but it was really nice and totally blew away the
tiny hotel room we had been cramped in for the last two months.
Steve helped us unpack the car and convinced us to take off work so
he could take us out to dinner to celebrate.

“There is a quaint little restaurant around
the way. You will love it.”

I wanted to work as much as possible since
Jessica wasn’t here, but we decided it would be a nice way to begin
our first night in the new place.

“I’m taking the ladies to dinner. Let’s call
it a day,” he told the mechanics, Alan and Timothy.

“Hi. How are you all doing?” I asked.

“Doing fine, ma’am.” Alan said, still as
bashful as ever. Timothy just nodded in agreement with Alan. I
wanted to ask him about Katie. I knew they had gotten together and
she was taken by him. He was a sweet, southern boy who was
infatuated with her. Worried, however, that she may have broken his
heart, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

We sat in the restaurant. They brought a
bottle of wine and our
entrées
soon followed. When he handed them his credit card, the gentleman
said, “Thank you, Randall.”

Randall? His name is Steve
.

“Randall?” I questioned.

“Oh, he just teases me about my middle name.”
He blew it off.

He introduced us to everyone like we were
good friends. Steve let them know we were new from the Lower 48,
not telling them we were renting the basement. He made it seem more
like we were visiting.

When we got back to the house, he said we
should join him for another glass of wine. During dinner, he had
told us of houses he owned throughout the world and said he wanted
to show them to us in case we ever wanted to take a vacation to any
of them. Pulling out the DVD, he assured us he would let us rent
them for free if he didn’t have anyone staying there at the
time.

He turned on the footage. The video was of
Steve and this lady going through these beautiful mansions.

“This is our kitchen, Mom, and this is our
living room. Here is the view from our front porch,” or back deck,
or whatever it happened to be. It was Steve and his ex-wife showing
all of the houses they owned and giving a tour of each room. He had
houses in Hawaii, Europe, the mountains, all over the place—each
home beautiful, spotless, and pristine.

“This mechanic shop is my hobby. I like
working on cars. It takes my mind off some of the stress of my
other businesses,” he said casually. “You would like the house in
Italy. It’s really beautiful. If you all ever need to get away,
just give me a few weeks’ notice.”

I thought about Dylan and how he wanted to go
to Italy. Wouldn’t it be awesome if one day I could surprise him?
Steve seemed really nice. He wanted to take us under his wing. He
started to open another bottle of wine.

“I’m tired, but thank you anyway.” I stood up
from the couch, grabbed my glass, and made my way to the
kitchen.

“Thanks for dinner.” Emily stood up
smiling.

“Yeah, thank you for everything,” I nodded.
We rinsed out the glasses and searched for the cabinet to put them
away.

“Where do these go?”

“Leave them on the counter. I’ll put them
back,” he replied.

Steve was recently divorced and going through
a hard time with it. I think he liked the company, especially since
his sons were visiting his parents.

During dinner, he had confided his wife had a
drug problem and between her addiction and his responsible nanny,
he got sole custody. She seemed normal enough on the DVD, but
apparently, that was before the addiction began. We felt a little
sorry for him, but he seemed to have his life together.

We spent the next day unpacking—putting our
clothes in the drawers and hanging things in our own closets. Emily
finished and came into my room, sitting on my bed.

It felt so good to not be living out of a
suitcase anymore. When we went upstairs to get something to eat, we
saw Steve had started a barbecue.

“You all hungry?” It smelled really good.

“That would be great. We were ready to start
making a cup of noodles.”

“I went ahead and started the process to get
you tags,” he began, “so you could start driving right away.
Whenever you want, you can just change the title into your name. It
takes five or six hours—you know how slow those places are. In
Alaska, you need proof of residency, and I just figured you would
want to be able to have the transportation you need now, instead of
waiting till you had established it. It’s getting an inspection
Monday. It should be ready Monday afternoon.”

I had forgotten about those details. I guess
it made sense to keep the car in his name for now, since I didn’t
have an Alaskan driver’s license or proof of an address. We didn’t
have a lease since we were paying month to month.

Monday? That stinks
. We planned to
work over the weekend.
I guess two days off wouldn’t kill
us.
However, if I had known that we wouldn’t have
transportation, I would have stayed in the hotel until Monday.

We really needed the money since we spent a
lot of it on the deposit, the car, and the first month’s rent. We
didn’t want to waste a hundred dollars on the cab fare it would
take to get us to work and back. We would end up working for
free.

The phone rang.

“Can I get it, Steve? It may be Dylan. He
told me he was going to check on me today.”

“Sure you can.”

“Hello?”

“Nicole?” his sexy voice greeted me.

“Dylan.” I covered the receiver and told
Emily and Steve, “I’ll be right back.” I ran down the stairs with
the portable phone. “Well, it’s official. We are officially moved
in. And I’m getting my car Monday. How are you doing?”

“Besides missing your beautiful smile, I’m
doing okay. I only have a minute. The line is really long, but I
wanted you to know that I’m thinking about you and am excited about
your new adventure. But you tell Steve if anything happens to you,
I will have to kill him.”

“Everything is fine. We are settling in
nicely. It’s great to have our own closets.” I told him we would be
in Maryland soon, and how excited I was at the chance to see my
family and bring Jess back with me.

“That is wonderful, baby, I can’t wait to
meet her. I have to run but I had to hear your voice. I miss you so
much. I will try and call again in a few days before you go back to
Maryland.”

“It was so good to hear your voice. I miss
you too.”

I ran back upstairs with the phone.

“I’m sorry about that. I told him we were
moving in today, and he wanted to make sure everything was going
fine.”

“No problem. I was telling Emily that I
finished all my work early. I didn’t know if you wanted to go to a
movie or something after we eat. I never finish early and haven’t
gone to the movies in a long time.”

The mechanics knocked at the front door. They
entered the house, stomping their feet at the door so they wouldn’t
track snow inside.

“So, it’s not too cold out there for you?” I
rubbed my arms, just the draft made me shiver.

“No, ma’am. We are doing fine.” Alan
nodded.

“I love the accent.” I looked at the table
realizing we needed plates. “I’m sure we will be seeing you
around.” I excused myself and exited to the kitchen. Because of the
open floor plan, it was easy to overhear their conversation.

“We are going to the movie if you want to
come,” Steve asked the mechanics.

Well, we hadn’t exactly said yes. Truth was I
preferred not to go, but it was really awkward to say no. I still
couldn’t believe we were going to miss three days of work—three
weekend nights—that was when we made the most money.

“No, thank you, Steve. We are getting ready
to head out and wondered if we could get our checks,” Alan
asked.

“Sure, I’m getting ready to sit down and eat
with these young ladies, and then we are going out. I’ll bring the
checks to you all later.”

I peeked out of the kitchen. They seemed to
be a little disappointed. We could wait to eat. I wondered why he
didn’t just give them their checks.

* * *

“Mommy!” Jessica ran up to me, leaping into
my arms at the airport. “Mommy, you’re home!”

I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her up,
and smothered her with kisses.

“My Angel! I missed you so much!” Tears came
to my eyes. It was only a few months, but it had seemed like an
eternity.

My mom and dad watched as we embraced, giving
us our moment. They slowly came forward when they felt they
wouldn’t intrude. I set Jessica down and ran to hug them as well,
their faces decorated in smiles.

“How are you, sweetheart?” My dad gave me a
kiss on the forehead.

“I’m doing wonderful. How are you all?” I
squeezed my mom.

“We’re just happy to see you.”

Driving home from the airport, we passed a
park that I played at when I was younger. I hadn’t been to the park
in years. It was dusted in snow. We stopped in a nearby store and I
bought plastic sleds.

“Dad, do you remember coming here when I was
a kid? I thought this hill was a mountain.” The four of us made our
way up the hill in the park.

“I was a lot younger then,” he laughed. “I
have to say at my age, this hike does feel like a mountain.”

“I remember you coming here to paint,” my mom
reminded me.

“This is where I did my first painting. The
one of the sunset. It was on this hill. I had forgotten about
that.” I used to come to paint and write poetry before Ronald
wouldn’t allow me to.

“I think we should race. What do you think
Jess?”

“I’m on Mommy’s team.” Jessica jumped up and
down in excitement.

“Wait a minute. I don’t think I have been on
a sled in fifteen years. You have to take it easy on us old folks.”
My dad tried to play the sympathy card.

“Yeah, right. Old? I don’t think so. I don’t
see any cane. How about loser makes dinner?”

“Well, I was going to make your favorite pot
roast anyway.”

“Mom’s pot roast? Oh man, the stakes are big.
Jess, we have to win.”